Objective To spell it out the feasibility and usage of therapeutic hypothermia after pediatric cardiac arrest. percent of sufferers in the therapeutic hypothermia group had an initial heat <35C. The median therapeutic hypothermia target heat was 34.0C (33.5C34.8C), was reached by 7 hrs (5C8 hrs) after admission in patients who were not hypothermic on admission, and was maintained for 24 hrs (16C48 hrs). Re-warming lasted 6 hrs (5C8 hrs). In the therapeutic hypothermia group, heat <32C occurred in 15% of patients and was associated with higher hospital mortality (29% vs. 11%; = .02). Patients treated with therapeutic hypothermia differed from those treated with standard therapy, with more un-witnessed cardiac arrest (= .04), more doses of epinephrine to achieve return of spontaneous circulation (= .03), and a pattern toward more out-of-hospital cardiac arrests (= .11). After arrest, therapeutic hypothermia patients received more frequent electrolyte supplementation (< .05). Standard therapy patients were twice as likely as therapeutic hypothermia patients to have a fever Tnfrsf10b (>38C) after arrest (37% vs. 18%; = .02) and trended toward a higher rate of re-arrest (26% vs. buy VcMMAE 13%; = .09). Rates of red blood cell transfusions, contamination, and arrhythmias were similar between groups. There was no difference in hospital mortality buy VcMMAE (55.0% therapeutic hypothermia vs. 55.3% standard therapy; = 1.0), and 78% of the therapeutic hypothermia survivors were discharged home (vs. 68% of the standard therapy survivors; = .46). In multivariate analysis, mortality was independently associated with initial hypoglycemia or hyperglycemia, number of doses of epinephrine during resuscitation, asphyxial etiology, and longer duration of cardiopulmonary resuscitation, but not treatment group (odds ratio for mortality in the therapeutic hypothermia group, 0.47; = .2). Conclusions This is the largest study reported on the use of therapeutic moderate hypothermia in pediatric cardiac arrest to date. We found that therapeutic hypothermia was feasible, with target temperature achieved in <3 hrs overall. Temperature below target range was associated with increased mortality. Prospective study is urgently needed to determine the efficacy of therapeutic hypothermia in pediatric patients after cardiac arrest. assessments for normally distributed continuous variables. Wilcoxon rank-sum was used for non-normally distributed data. Associations with outcomes between patients in the HT or ST group were determined by univariate analysis. Variables with < .1 for mortality were included in a multivariable logistic regression model using a backward stepwise method, and variables with the buy VcMMAE highest values were eliminated sequentially until all terms in the model were significant (< .05). HT was forced into the final model, although its value was > .1. Initial variables in the multivariable regression included first whole blood pH, initial glucose (<70 mg/dL, 70C250 mg/dL, >250 mg/dL), epinephrine doses during resuscitation (0, 1C5, or 6), number of inotropes in the first 24 hrs, location of CA (out-of-hospital vs. in-hospital), etiology of CA (asphyxia vs. cardiac), whether the arrest was witnessed, HT vs. ST, and minutes of cardiopulmonary resuscitation until ROSC. All values were two-sided. Missing data were not imputed. Data are presented as median (interquartile range [IQR]) or mean SD). Data analysis was performed using Stata software, version 10 (College Station, TX). RESULTS In the 6-yr study period, 399 children had the discharge diagnosis CA, 181 of whom met entry criteria and were included in this study (Fig. 1). Forty subjects received HT. Baseline patient characteristics were comparable between HT and ST groups (Table 1), with the exception that more immunosuppressed patients were in the ST group (= .1). Only one-third of children had no chronic illnesses. Physique 1 Study flowchart. Hypothermia (< .01). The majority (60%) of children in the HT group presented to the ICU with temperatures at or below the target temperature and therefore required only maintenance cooling. Heat <36C or >38C on arrival to the ICU was associated with increased mortality (vs. 36CC38C; < .01). The median HT target heat was 34.0C (33.5CC34.8C), was reached by 7 hrs (5C8 hrs) in patients who had temperature above target on admission, and was maintained for 24 hrs (16C48 hrs). A cooling blanket was used for 84% of HT patients. Re-warming lasted 6 hrs (5C8 hrs). Eleven children, six with trauma before 2002, were actively warmed to normothermia. Three of these patients progressed to buy VcMMAE brain death, one died without brain death, and seven survived. Safety The HT and ST groups had comparable rates of hemorrhage, receipt of red blood cell transfusions, intermittent arrhythmias, contamination, and seizures in the first 4 days of admission (Table 4). Table 4 Adverse events in the first 4 days Three children had bradycardia (<60 beats per minute) for >1 hr (range, 2C11 hrs) during HT (Figs. 2< .05) and trended toward more calcium supplementation (= .08). Patients in the HT group also received more insulin infusions in the first 4 days, both for the entire study period (< .01) and for patients admitted in or after 2002 (= .02). Patients in the.